theguruguys

The HD20 was the projector I previously owned before I upgraded to a 3D ready HD33. When it appeared in 2009 Projector Central gave it a good review. Optoma has always lead the pack when it comes to performance vs value and the HD20 was no exception.

It puts out a great image and has pretty good color accuracy out of the box. I sold my three year old used HD20 with a new bulb in it for not much less than what it is being offered for here, they really hold their value.

Rustyh3

I am looking for a second projector for the office so we can permanently mount one in a meeting room. Our current projector does not handle high def or wide formats well. Current projector is a Panasonic with 2600 lumens. We usually run it at low power to extend bulb life. So this one should work at high power in most rooms.

So what makes a good home theater unit good for the office environment as well?

radi0j0hn

Serious question: What is the status of LED illuminated projectors for commercial use, as described in my previous post? I'm not talking home theater, but a darkened room (seats at least 30) with a professional screen and a permanently mounted projector.

radi0j0hn

One of the biggest causes for bulb failure is moving the projector BEFORE it has cooled down. This has been happening to all kinds of projectors since the 1930's. I worked in camera stores in the days of movie projectors and saw it all the time.

If the bulb is the original one, it could have been abused by folks who never new this problem.

madgonad

radi0j0hn wrote:Serious question: What is the status of LED illuminated projectors for commercial use, as described in my previous post? I'm not talking home theater, but a darkened room (seats at least 30) with a professional screen and a permanently mounted projector.

Thanks!

They are starting to come out right now at the 1080p resolution. Prices are over $2000 - which is okay when you consider that it saves on purchasing 4-6 bulbs and quite a bit of electricity. These projectors aren't terribly bright though.

ArbysNight

I got one of these in a previous woot. I use it in a completely darkened room and the brightness, color, resolution, etc. are all excellent. However, the DLP color wheel rainbow effect is quite pronounced for me. This manifests itself as blobs of red, green, blue if I quickly move my eyes across a dark screen with a few bright white features. And since the point of a projector is to have a nice big screen, this is problem enough that I'm considering buying either a tri-DLP or some other non-color-wheel technology projector.

whatsupchuck

radi0j0hn

madgonad wrote:They are starting to come out right now at the 1080p resolution. Prices are over $2000 - which is okay when you consider that it saves on purchasing 4-6 bulbs and quite a bit of electricity. These projectors aren't terribly bright though.

Sounds like we need to keep on for a couple more years. Thanks.

On a side note, a school where I teach sold all their 5 year old Panasonic projectors (new at $5,000) for $80-&120 each!

paulw1128

Another "+1 excellent projectors for the money" verdict from me. Got my HD180 (HD20 was sold out) from woot 8/30 last year.

We use it on a blank beige ("eggshell" apparently...) wall at ~120" screen size, with 12' throw distance. The image is bright enough to watch TV even in the afternoon sun with the shutter-blinds closed. Movies (especially those with lots of dark scenes) do suffer when it's this bright though - I usually take that as a sign that I should be outside doing something instead of sitting in watching movies ;-)

800 hours on the lamp with no issues, and plenty of 'bright mode' time in there too.

The biggest niggle for me is that the AT&T u-verse remote does not have any codes for powering it on/off!

nleksan

I have been using 3 HD20's for about a year now, as a home theater projector and for my gaming PC. I have found that it compares extremely well with units 3-5x its price, except for black levels. If you intend to use this primarily for dark images, you will need to be prepared to setup the viewing area so that there is absolutely minimal external light getting in. I also would recommend using a medium-light Gray projector screen, as it really does make the blacks look better without hurting the overall color accuracy.
I have used it for 3D gaming, with the 3 projectors all combining their image into one, and the results are nothing short of incredible. The brightness doesn't drop due to the 3D, and the resolution stays a full 1080p instead of being cut in half.
Also, if you are a gamer and are interested in running Nvidia Surround or AMD/ATI Eyefinity, I can promise you that you will never want to go back to 3x 1080p monitors again after using 3 projectors! No bezels, absolutely seamless transition, and if you are able/willing to have the 2 side screens at an angle, it is beyond "real" feeling. Sure, I would prefer to have 2560x1440/1600 resolution, but with projectors this is much less necessary than with large LCD Displays. I have a trio of Dell Ultrasharp U2711 that I use for my "traditional desktop" (same PC), and while the increased pixel area is insanely useful for productivity, I am hard pressed to find a significant difference between the two display types in gaming. Running a 3930K @ 4.6Ghz on a Rampage 4 Extreme with 32GB DDR3-2540 10-12-11-32, and with a grand total of 4 EVGA GTX680 4GB cards in Quad-SLI overcooked to 1380core/7840mem (CPU/MB/GPU'S all custom liquid cooled), I stillhave to turn the AA down when gaming on the3x U2711 displays, but when using the 3 HD20'S and playing Crysis 2 (DX11 Texture Pack), Skyrim (Extreme Texture Mods), or Metro2033, I am able to run at the absolute highest quality settings AND with 8x(or modded 16x) MSAA/TXAA (TXAA 2 enabled when possible), full Tessellation, 32x Anisotropic Filtering with Triple Buffering, and everything else (Full HDR, etc). With the Dell displays, I have to drop AA down a notch or two and same with AF, in order to maintain a minimum frame rate of >60fps, but with the projectors all these settings make the image quality so smooth that the difference in pixel count, 6.22mil (3x 1080p) versus 11.06mil (3x 1440p), is negligible.

I really can't recommend this projector enough! If you are fortunate enough to have a nice PC and the money to set up a multi-display setup, 3 HD20's with 90-120" screens is as close to virtual reality as you can get! Throw in a nice 11.2ch receiver with some good speakers (I use 2x Definitve Technology BP7000SC towers for Front L/R, 4x Mythos ST SuperTower's for Surround L/R and Surround Rear L/R, 2x CS-8080HD's for a dual-speaker Center Channel, 2x Mythos Gem XL for Front High R/L, 2x SR-8080BP's for Front Wide L/R, and 2x SuperCube Trinity dual-driver subwoofers; all powered by 3x McIntosh MC452 2x450W + 4x MC303 3x300W + 4x MC2KW 1x2000W Amplifiers, a pair of Processors (MX151 + MX120), MEN220 Room Correction Processor, 2x MPC1500 Power Control Systems (Voltage Regulation to less than 0.0005% fluctuation, Automatic Power Factor Correction, Surge Suppression), Furman IT-Reference 20i Line Conditioner/Surge Suppression/Isolation Transformer, and protected by an APC Symmetra 16kVA 12,500W UPS with quad-pass transformers.

malachias

I got this projector (the HD180) last time it was on sale here, and have been extraordinarily satisfied. The price was the same, and I can answer a few questions about it:

1- I'm pretty sure it came with a new bulb. You can display the 'bulb age' in the menus, and after playing with the projector for a while and finding this option, mine said '1'.

2- I've used it to watch youtube videos on my wall in the afternoon with the blinds closed, and also in the evening with the lights on, with the bulb on the "eco" (lower brightness) setting. I've never seen the need to switch the brightness up. Of course it's "better" with the lights out / in the dark, but the picture is still very visible even with plenty of ambient light.

3- It's surprisingly quiet. Don't get me wrong, if you listen for the fan you'll hear it. But compared to other (cheaper) projectors I've owned, it's quieter and leaks less light.

I cannot stress enough how much I like this projector. It's the best bang for your buck that I've been able to find anywhere.

I know this is a weird way to compare things, but this $650 projector is at least 4-5 times better than any $450 projector. If you're on the fence between this and something cheaper, spend the extra $200, you won't regret it.

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